The taste of Korea: Kimbap rolled up in memories

Some of the most ordinary things are the most precious. Korean kimbap roll is a food that can be easily found anywhere in Korea, but it also holds the memories and emotions of each person who eats it. You could say that gimbap is a small universe and a unique world for Koreans.

Gimbap, which has different flavors in every household with the touch of a mother's hand, is a food that Koreans cherish. Recently, there has been a trend for premium gimbap with various ingredients.

Other countries also have their own culture of wrapping ingredients in different ways, such as Mexican tacos, California rolls in the U.S., and Norimaki in Japan, where meat and vegetables are wrapped in tortilla bread, rice, and seaweed with exotic sauces. However, they are slightly different in shape and detail from gimbap.

Korean kimbap roll: Uncertain origins

The exact origin of the gimbap is not clear. Some say that it came from the Japanese Norimaki (rice wrapped with raw fish, cucumbers, sliced and dried gourds, and vinegared radish and seaweed), while others say that gimbap is a variation of boksam, which was eaten in the late Joseon Dynasty (1392–1910).

The origin of the name "gimbap" is also unknown. An article in the Dong-A Ilbo on March 29, 1958 contained a recipe for sushi, which seems to refer to gimbap, which is made by mixing rice with vinegar. The article explains that a sheet of seaweed is wrapped around rice mixed with 2/3 cup of vinegar, 2 tablespoons of sugar, 1 tablespoon of salt, and monosodium glutamate (MSG) with ingredients such as fish, mushrooms, tofu, spinach, and carrots. Later, vinegar was removed from the gimbap recipe.

However, Koreans have been wrapping rice in seaweed long before gimbap was developed. In the Dongguk Segi in 1894, 'kimsam' and 'boksam' are mentioned, which refer to the practice of eating rice and various side dishes wrapped in seaweed or vegetables. In the late XVIII-century cookbook The Book of Poetry (Shijeonseo), it is said that people coated seaweed with oil and sprinkled salt on it to eat it. From this, many people guess that they wrapped rice in seaweed and ate it.

The first record of seaweed itself goes back even further. In the "Gyeongsangdo Jiriji" and the "Dongguk Yeoji Seungnam" written in the 15th century, it is recorded that seaweed was produced in Gyeongsangdo and Jeollado respectively, suggesting that people ate seaweed at that time.

No matter what the origin of gimbap is, people believe that seaweed cultivation is unique to Korea. One of the stories passed down orally is that about 300 years ago, an old man living in Hadong, Gyeongsangnam-do, picked up a piece of driftwood covered with seaweed while collecting clams in the Seomjin River. She liked the taste of the seaweed attached to the wood, so she tied it to a bamboo pole and submerged it in seawater to grow it. It is said that this is where seaweed farming in Korea began.

The people of Tongyeong, who had to fish for a long time once they went out, went out to sea with food that would not spoil easily, and at that time, they started to eat chungmu gimbap. Radish kimchi, which serves as a side dish, has been diversified into squid and fish cakes. (Image source)

Tongyeong Chungmu Gimbap has become a part of Korean food culture

From 1950 onwards, gimbap gradually changed into a completely Korean style of gimbap (Korean kimbap roll). In Korea, where the culture of raw fish wasn't widespread, gimbap was rolled with vegetables or other ingredients that were available at home at that time. Depending on my preference, I reduced the vinegar and seasoned the rice with sesame oil and salt, and I also used sesame seeds to add more flavor.

Kim Yun-yeol, who grew up in Dalseong-dong, Daegu, where his mother ran a kimbap shop in the late 1940s, shared his memories of that time. "My mother made the rice with vinegar, sugar, and a bit of sesame oil, and called it 'seaweed sushi.' It was similar to Japanese maki back then. After the Korean War, she reopened her kimbap shop and changed the recipe. She took out the vinegar and added sugar, salt, and sesame oil to the rice. She also replaced the red-colored Japanese pickles with carrots, ham, and eggs."

Another important story about the Korean kimbap roll is the one of Chungmu kimbap, a local specialty of Tongyeong, a coastal city in Gyeongsangnam-do province. The city used to be called Chungmu. According to one theory, Chungmu kimbap originated after the liberation of Korea, when a fisherman ate gimbap with radish kimchi and squid on his boat. But the gimbap he ate was plain and unseasoned rice. He had to stay at sea for a long time, so he kept the gimbap simple and fresh. Instead, he enjoyed the spicy and sour radish kimchi and the hot sauce with his gimbap. This kind of chungmu kimbap became popular and some people started to eat it with sliced radish and squid or fish cakes with hot sauce.

The most common type of Korean kimbap roll is rice flavored with sesame oil and salt, wrapped with pickled radish, egg, carrot, burdock, ham, and spinach. 

My mom's kimbap is the best

In the 21st century, kimbap has become a complete Korean dish. Dried seaweed is seasoned with sesame oil, salt, and sesame seeds, and then filled with pickled radish, egg, carrot, burdock, ham, spinach, and cucumber. This is the most typical and Korean way of making kimbap. Of course, this is not a fixed rule, and the ingredients vary from house to house, depending on personal preference or what's available in the fridge. When you think of a 'lunch box', you think of kimbap, so it's a common choice for picnics and outings. It's also a food that reminds you of your mother's touch, so people often say that there are as many kinds of kimbap as there are mothers in the country.

Thanks to the taste of 'my mom's' kimbap, which we learned from childhood, Koreans have their own philosophy of kimbap that 'my mom's kimbap is the best'. Spinach stir-fried with sesame oil and Korean soy sauce, burdock and fish cakes stir-fried with soy sauce, various vegetables, and warm rice cooked just right, all rolled up and sprinkled with aromatic sesame oil and salt. When we see kimbap, we often tell our own stories and feel nostalgic. This is because we all have our own memories of kimbap.

The endless possibilities of kimbap, its diversity

The Korean kimbap market started to grow in 1995 when Gimbap Heaven opened in Incheon. It was a popular restaurant that sold both snacks and Korean dishes, but it became a nationwide chain when it franchised in the late 1990s. At that time, the '1,000 won kimbap' that Gimbap Heaven sold was cheap, big, and satisfying, making it a valuable breakfast for hungry office workers. It was also around that time that kimbap became a regular menu item for dining.

Since then, kimbap has evolved in many ways. Ingredients that were not normally used for kimbap, such as stir-fried meat, bulgogi, pork cutlet, anchovies, tuna mayo, shrimp, and squid, were introduced and the Korean market saw a trend of premium kimbap for a while.

As more people pursue health and veganism, some gimbap restaurants have come up with healthy gimbap varieties that are packed with vegetables, chicken breast, or other protein-rich ingredients, as well as gondrenamul, shiragi namul, pickles, and carrots.

Many of the gimbap restaurants in the area that have gained nationwide fame have distinctive ingredients. For example, 'Oseonmo Yennal Gimbap' in Jeonju City is known for its carrot gimbap that is stuffed with carrots, while 'Gyori Gimbap' in Gyeongju City, North Gyeongsang Province, is nicknamed egg gimbap because it has 90% egg strips in it. 

'O-wolui Gimbap', located near Nakseongdae Station in Seoul, is similar to Gyori Gimbap, but it stands out for its huge size that makes it hard to eat in one bite. 

'Dongwon Bunsik' in Busan is a gimbap restaurant that only locals are aware of. This type of Korean kimbap roll has thick egg rolls (a Korean dish made with eggs and various vegetables) and squid chae (a Korean dish made with thinly sliced semi-dried squid and gochujang sauce), which are both delicious. 

If you visit Jeju Island, you can also find saury gimbap that has a whole saury in it. It looks quite unusual and strange, but the rice goes well with the savory taste of the roasted saury. There is also gimbap with pork belly, which is a staple of Korean BBQ.

Gimbap is a dish that reminds Koreans of their childhood and it has endless possibilities with different ingredients. Korean food experts and enthusiasts believe that gimbap will become a global sensation as part of 'K-food' beyond Korea.

(Source)